We are trying something new. Over wintering 4-frame double nucleus colonies. We have been spending a lot of our free time researching the possibility of making this move and we have decided to do so. The addition of the double nucleus colonies to our apiaries will transition slowly over the next month. We have started with 6 nucleus colonies and by the end of August, we should hit our number of 10 having 2 hives each (“20” 4-frame nuc’s). All non-producing colonies for this year will get moved into a double nuc. It will be a labor intensive process over the next month or so but in the end, if half make it through the winter, we can use them to boost weak production colonies in the spring and ultimately giving them a head start into the spring and summer honey flow. We started with 3 double nucs and the benefits were clearly apparent by the end of July. We will be wrapping things up and should have more info on how the season has gone with them soon!

We assembled a lot of equipment that was sitting in the basement workshop over the past week. There are 8 more deeps assembled and 4 painted and ready for the bee yards. We also finished up all of the double nuc equipment. Over the next week, we have a couple hives that will need to be split and will go into the EZ Nuc’s we finished assembling and three nuc’s that need to get moved to a bee yard. We will also have to build a bunch of frames now that the bees are moving along nicely. There is one hive in particular that will need to be split because of a lot of swarm cells on the bottom of the upper deep frames. We also need to get back to building hive stands. Currently we have enough parts to build 5 more and only 3 in use. Those take roughly an hour to cut, clean, glue and assemble each assembly so they haven’t been on the priority list to get built.

We have also done a lot of inspections the last two weeks. The nuc’s in the Hartford yard are doing very well. We will have to move them into the new double nuc’s before they too begin to make swarm cells. All 3 nuc’s in that yard have good laying queens. We also went through the Iron Ridge yard and added a few honey supers to some of the rapidly growing hives. We have to get to our big storage unit and pull out some more honey supers and frames so we can get them out and in use.On Friday we purchased a battery operated weed whacker for use in the yards to clear out the tall grass from the front of the hives. After three separate trips, we managed to clean up enough of the tall grass to allow the bees unimpeded flight to and from the hive entrances. The truck has a solar panel on the top with a small battery bank so we can use an inverter with the battery charger to charge the weed whacker batteries on the fly. This way we are using a renewable energy source to charge out battery packs rather than gas powered equipment. Much quieter operation and the bees don’t seem to be bothered by the use of it until we get right next to the entrance. Over the next week or so, we will continue to clear out the bee yard for ease of access and a cleaner looking bee yard.

We are also in search of some land to put more bee hives. The property owner we have hives at in the Iron Ridge area is planning on selling his property. The property next to his is also up for sale and perspective buyers of that property didn’t seem to interested in having bee hives adjacent to that house. The realtor gave me a dirty look the last time she drove by so I’m guessing it’s making it a hard sell for her having all of those bee hives within eye shot of the house. So if anyone knows of land owners in the Iron Ridge, WI area who wouldn’t mind some bee hives on their property, send them my way. An ideal location would have a southern exposure with northern and western exposure protection. We would need to have access to the bees year around and would prefer to drive up but atv access would be sufficient. Traveling would not be an issue if it came down to it. We will need multiple bee yards starting next year. The plan is to double if not triple the size of the business next year. Any info on potential landowners would be great.

Saturday we went out to the Hartford yard and inspected the nuc’s so see if the queens had hatched from the cells. Two out of 3 had hatched and we were lucky enough to see a freshly hatched queen cruising the frames looking for other cells to destroy. Best guess, she was out no more then 10 minutes. The second nuc we inspected had one cell open and another cell chewed out on the side but there were two other cells left untouched. So that means the queen is out and she is killing off her competition. The third nuc had all of the cells still capped so we will give that one another couple days and we will go back and check to see if a queen hatched and also to go back and check if the other two are laying or not. The 4th nuc is in Herman and we still have to make a trip out there to see if she is making queen cells or not. We want to force that queen into making more queens because she has really good genetics that we would like to keep in our yards.We built up a bunch more frames, deeps and bottom boards for the nuc’s and for future splits. Our goal is to have 11 more splits/additions to the yards before July. That will give them plenty of time to get ready for winter. We will gladly make more if the opportunity presents itself but 11 is the minimum. We have 3 bottom boards made up or the splits and deeps for all 3. We also have half the frames built with wax installed. Speaking of equipment… We are seriously looking into a job trailer for moving equipment and hives from yard to yard. It is beginning to get difficult to move honey supers especially if there are more than 6 to put on hives. The last super install was only 6 and that is all we could get into the SUV. When we start loading more than 3 hives with supers, it will require more than one trip at a time to get them on wasting both gas and time. When it comes time to remove supers, it will become an even greater hassle because then we have to leave open honey supers in the yard until we can transport them out. We had that issue last year and it was more of a problem because we ended up getting a short blast of rain, soaking all of the open honey supers. All of that honey ended up being fed back to the bees. Good for the bees, not so good for honey sales.

We also had a couple orders for honey! We bottled up enough for the order and a couple extra just in case!

Last week we did an inspection on the hives in the Iron Ridge yard that made it through the winter. We had one hive that exploded and had to split. I pulled the queen of that hive and put it into a nuc with 2 frames of bees we shook into it. We also pulled swarm cells from that hive and started 3 other nuc’s and put them into another yard. Now we have 4 bee yards in southeastern Wisconsin. Reeseville, Iron Ridge, Herman and Hartford. The Hartford yard is the starter yard for all new nuc’s and the Herman yard is for “overflow”. During the move we had a little bit of a surprise when we got half way to the Hartford yard. When we opened the truck, there was a cluster of bees on the outside of the nuc. Made for an interesting evening. We also did follow-up inspections on the package installs. They do not like the plastic snap-on foundation at all. There was a lot of burr comb on many of the frames that had that in it. We will be switching entirely to wax for the deeps.

This year’s bees are not as good as past years. We already have queen cells in 60% of the packages that were installed and the hives are not fully used up. They maybe we’re at 40% capacity. We added a few deeps to those with cells in them and the ones that didn’t have cells, we added a deep to just in case there is a major hatch. We also experimented with different ways to install foundation and found that in 70% of those frames the foundation let loose and the bees just built their comb in any old fashion in some cases gluing frames together. Note to self, don’t do that again…

The Reeseville yard was a bit of a disappointment. One hive was busting with bees and brood and another hive was queenless. That hive will have to remain as is until we can get a ripe queen cell to put in there. There is a lot of bees in that colony so we should be OK for another week. If we can’t get a ripe cell in that time frame, we will just combine that one with another one and call it good. We added supers to all the hives there to take advantage of the Black Locust and Basswood honey flow.

We also built a lot of equipment the last two weeks. Still have 10 bottom boards to assemble and paint as well as another 10 or so deeps. We are set with honey supers for this year and next for sure. There will have to be another equipment purchase before July because we will be short on frames and deeps by then. We also have to get back to building hive stands. Currently we only have 4 in use but we have been putting off building new ones because they take roughly an hour to cut and assemble just one stand. It’s tedious and time consuming and time isn’t on our side at the moment. Over the next few weeks, we will be building deeps and frames as well as painting to keep up with the new hives.

Yesterday we added honey supers to a couple hives in the Iron Ridge yard. Things are looking good out there. There was a lot of bee traffic coming and going from that yard and most of the hives look good. There are a couple we have to take a look at this weekend, weather permitting.

We finished all of the 10 package installs on Monday 5/11. It took a couple of hours to get them all in. We didn’t have to use too much smoke so the installs went quicker than they normally do. We ended up having to pull the queen from the package and install her in the middle of 6 frames and then set the package into the hive because it was too cold by the time we got closer to the end of the installs. We believe that this method of installing packages is less stressful on the queens and the bees. Pulling the queen, rapping the box on the hive then dumping the bees in adds stress to the already stressed package bees and queen acceptance tends to be less than desirable with that type of install. I have had many superseded and failed queens because they had been stressed from the travel and through a rough install.We followed up with an inspection on Friday 5/15 and found that all of the queens had been released and we removed all of the empty packages. We added the 4 frames we took out for the package and closed them up. I did a quick inspection on a couple hives and had not found any eggs yet but the bees are building out new comb and repairing some of the damaged comb.

We finished the inspection form in the Apiary Management database. There are some additional line items we need to add and modify so that the form is more user friendly but it is much better than pen and paper. With the database, we can call up so much information about a single colony and now have it at our fingertips without needing an internet connection. As our business grows, we will be adding functions like having a real time view of stock honey levels, various components to the bottling operation and also have a snapshot of equipment levels. At some point in the operation, we will move the database to a SharePoint style system with user access and login so that the database can be viewed in real time by multiple users. Right now we will be spending some time adding all of the inspections to the new system that we have not yet uploaded to HiveTracks. We will also take the inspections from the surviving hives and move them to the new system over the next 2 months while updating the current inspections then load them to a binder we keep in the truck for field reference. We also added a tasks form within the database. There needs to be some edits made so that we can pull up a task for a specific hive.On 5/9 we did a follow-up inspection of the Iron Ridge yard to see how the bees were doing after the robbing session a day earlier. From what we could tell without opening any hives, they seemed to be flying due south from the location and many of the bees were returning with pollen. There was no indication of the bees going from one hive to another during the hour we were there watching. There was a lot of erratic movements coming from the big hive but for the most part it looked like normal traffic coming and going through the tiny entrance. We also shot a short video of the entrance while we were there to study the comings and goings of the bees. Stay tuned for that on YouTube!

Package bees finally showed up with a days notice. Unfortunately I was out of town on business so they will have to wait until Monday. This will be the last year we purchase bees from Dadant. There was not any communication with the status of package shipment short of a not so nice voice-mail about being called when packages arrived. We were just about ready to go and get a refund and purchase from another reputable supplier in the area. If we decide to purchase next year, we will go with that supplier.~Broken Timbers HoneyFind us on Facebook!

It was not a very productive week because it has been cold and rainy all week long. The weekend has been mostly set aside to build a new apiary management database using Microsoft Access. We currently have inventory management table, hive identification/location table and the beginnings of an inspection form. We have little to no experience with building an Access Database so it has proven to be slightly challenging. But with a little trial and error, we have a good foundation started. We are currently using the free version of HiveTracks as our management software but it is limited to what we can do with it. The pro version will cost $1.00 per hive per month to get all the bells and whistles like inventory management, a calender, a mobile app and more. With having the potential of 20 hives by the end of June, the cost of the pro version out weighs its usefulness at this stage in our operation. We really don’t use the phone or tablet out in the yard because of the potential of damaging it or worse. We cant justify the expense to replace either of those items for what we do. A pen and paper will have to do for the time being.We did three inspections this weekend. We were mostly interested in the emergency split we did last weekend. We checked the Iron Ridge yard today and found that there was a large cluster of bees trying to get into or out of the split. As it turned out, they had consumed all of the stores that we gave them last weekend and were robbing out the two weaker hives. We removed both of the liquid feeders on the weaker colonies (they have frames of honey still) and put fresh feed on the split. We also closed up all but one entrance on the two weaker colonies so that they can actually defend their homes. We also started a community feeder, not in the yard, but close so as to draw the attention away from the yard itself.We did some work in the basement building some new frames and installing foundation. The list of things just keeps on growing. At some point in the next week or two, we will get the inventory set up in our database so that we can check equipment levels at a glance. There still has not been any word as to when the bees are due to show. We have heard that the first non-commercial load should be arriving on Monday. That is good news to hear! Only a month later than we expected… At this rate it will be June before the bees are in.

Busy, busy week! We reached 202 new Facebook likes throughout the week! Thank you to those who shared and liked our page! We spent quite a few hours working on the web site. You will notice that there are new pictures on the product page and we made some minor changes to the home page. Over the next few months, we will be adding and taking some things off the web site as we have time. Product prices have been updated to reflect current rates. Most of the week was devoted to building replacement equipment. We built 30 new frames and installed foundation in them. We also replaced and added new equipment to the Iron Ridge bee yard in preparation for the packages that we haven’t been called on yet. Next year we may go with another supplier because Dadant is not really good with notifications. We did a followup inspection in Iron Ridge and found that the two hives are doing well. The strongest of the two should have a hatch in the next couple weeks doubling the size of that colony. The weaker colony seems to be struggling a little bit. The next week will be much cooler so they will not be out as much and will have a hard time keeping the brood area warm with the amount of bees that are in there. They do seem to be taking more of the liquid feed and both of the liquid feeders are about half empty. The winter feeders were removed from all of the hives in the Iron Ridge yard also. The Reeseville yard inspection came as a surprise. The inspection there resulted in an emergency split of one colony and the other we reversed the deeps and cleaned the hive. There is only a small section of capped brood in the weaker of the two. I would say that a softball size of brood on both sides of 3 frames was all we saw.

We removed one of the triple deeps to help contain some of the heat that they generate. We took the split from the other one out to the Iron Ridge yard because we could not find the queen in any of the boxes. There is enough eggs and day old larva in the parent colony and split that they could rear one on their own. We will do a follow-up inspection in the split next weekend weather permitting. Saturday was mostly a maintenance day. We were in the storage shed cleaning and going through equipment. A lot of the equipment is almost 8 years old so we made a list of the equipment that needed to be replaced and threw out old worn and outdated stuff. We will be transitioning away from the plastic frames in the deep hive bodies and going back to the wax foundation. One of the longest running hives still has unused plastic frames in the box. Even after 3 years, they haven’t drawn out the comb on the plastic frames in the lower box. Those frames will get removed and replaced with wax foundation when it is warm enough again. This coming week will only be in the lower 50’s for highs so it is much too cold to manipulate any of the hives this week with the exception of a short inspection. And lastly, we spent a few hours on Saturday after cleaning out the storage unit, processing all of the old comb into clean wax blocks. We will be turning some of that wax into homemade soaps in the not to distant future.

Well the first post I accidentally deleted after I completed it so this is a redo of the original post from memory… So Saturday we went out to the Iron Ridge yard to do an inspection on the two hives that survived the winter as well as move the one that was leaning really bad. In both hives, the queens were in the top box. The laying pattern for both is exceptional. The queens are laying in the spots where new bees hatched out of. The leaning hive must have suffered a higher loss of bees because it is not as far along as the second hive in terms of quantities of bees. I would venture a guess as to say that hive suffered a 75% loss in worker bees over the duration of the winter. The second hive has at least 3 good frames of capped brood as well as eggs and larva. There were 5-7 frames of bees and some freshly hatched workers too. We moved the first hive forward 3 feet and put it on a hive stand. The foragers were slightly confused as to where their hive went but by the time we completed the second inspection, they had found their home. We also did a reversal on both hives so the queen is in the bottom box. Both hives had plenty of honey stores left over. There was at least 4 frames of honey combined in both hives. Sometime this week we will go out and pull the winter feeders off and continue with 1:1 sugar syrup until they use up what is there. They are not pulling much syrup probably due to having honey left over in the hives. The foragers have found a couple sources of pollen. There is at least 50% of the foragers bringing back both white and yellow pollen in their baskets. I haven’t seen anything blooming in the area yet so I cannot determine the source. We also started to phase out some of the old equipment. The hive with the “G” painted of the front had the box above it replaced because the corners were beginning to split. Most of the equipment I built when I started the business in 2007 so it is due to be updated. All of the boxes with protruding handles will be slowly phased out and replaced with a standard hive body like the one that was replaced. Two hives were added and another had a deep hive body replaced. The two hives that were inspected did not need any new comb which was nice to see. All of the comb in those hives are less than 2 years old. I stopped at Dadant and picked up 25# of medium brood foundation for deep frames. I also inquired on the status of the 3# packages. Apparently the order form stated that 3# packages would not be available until the 15th of April. I sensed some bitterness on behalf of the manager when I asked that question. Anyway, a little birdie told me that 3# packages have started to show and that most of them were going to the commercial beekeepers. I fully expect that we should be getting a call from Dadant at some point this week letting us know when they will be available for pick-up. We also started to put wax foundation into the new frames that we purchased from Mann Lake Ltd. We currently have about 175 frames to assemble and put the foundation into. We will be phasing out all of the plastics inside the hives and going back to a more natural approach. I have found over the years that the bees tend to perform better with wood frames and wax foundation. We were using all plastic frames for a while and the acceptance rate for those frames was only 75% for the first year and I got 80% acceptance with a plastic foundation in a wood frame last year. A number of years ago we went with all wax and wood and had a 90% acceptance rate the first year and the next year they used up what they didn’t the year before. Switching over to all wax foundation will help us with queen rearing by allowing us to cut out queen cells and put them into queenless colonies. We will also be taking the strongest overwintered colony and put the queen with some bees from that hive into a Nuc. We will crowd her and force her into making swarm cells so we can cut them out and make new hives. Between the months of May and July we fully expect to increase our Iron Ridge yard with at least 10 more hives. Stay tuned for more!

It’s been too long since our last post. We finished another two new hive stands and have put them out in the yard making the total to 3. Packages should start to arrive in the next week or two. I made contact with the supplier and he said maybe this weekend we should start seeing 3 pound packages of bees but he wasn’t 100% sure. We have most of the equipment out in the yard ready to receive the new bees. This weekend we will be putting out the remaining equipment so when they do come we can install and go.

Spring is here and everything is starting to turn green. This morning we woke up and had some minor flooding in the streets and small streams are cresting. I went out to the yard and checked to make sure the hives are in good shape still. The wind hasn’t knocked over any of the hives yet which is good. We have one hive that needs to be moved because it is about to fall over. A good gust of wind could topple it and we would have a mess to clean up as well as a whole bunch of mad bees to deal with. That hive will be first on the list to go through this weekend. If you look at the first picture, in the center you can see one hive leaning to the right. It is actually tipped back quite a bit too.

I need to do some inspections to determine which hives can be split and which need some extra help. Queens this year are running about $25.00 each which is 1/4 the cost of a package. I will split the strong colonies into 3 or more and install them into nucleus colonies until they are ready to be put into a deep for ease of transportation. Let’s hope we don’t have any cold snaps for the rest of spring. Any nights below 35°F and I could loose the splits. While I go through the inspections, I will replace some of the worn equipment. Tonight I will be making a trip to Dadant to get some wax foundation to replace some of the ancient comb that is still in some of the hives. We haven’t been able to rotate comb around like we wanted to the last couple of years due to time constraints and funding.

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We are trying something new. Over wintering 4-frame double nucleus colonies. We have been spending a lot of our free time researching the possibility of making this move and we have decided to do so. The addition of the double nucleus colonies to our apiaries will transition slowly over the next month. We have […]

We assembled a lot of equipment that was sitting in the basement workshop over the past week. There are 8 more deeps assembled and 4 painted and ready for the bee yards. We also finished up all of the double nuc equipment. Over the next week, we have a couple hives that will need to […]

Saturday we went out to the Hartford yard and inspected the nuc’s so see if the queens had hatched from the cells. Two out of 3 had hatched and we were lucky enough to see a freshly hatched queen cruising the frames looking for other cells to destroy. Best guess, she was out no more […]